Design — Poster for Magazine

“Smile please…” requests a press photographer.
“Autograph please…” requests one of my fans.
“Wow!” A child couldn’t hide her surprise when she saw me waving at the crowd.
“Well, I think…” I mumble when my opinion is sought by the TV crew on an international political situation.

I am famous. I am a celebrity. I am a star.

Who doesn’t want to be popular?

The brief
There are a lot of gifted people around us. People who can perform a task brilliantly than any others. Novelists, screen play writers, poets, journalists, artists… The list is endless. But most of them are so lazy that they always keep a low profile. Cajoling the future ‘Man Booker Prize Winners’ into writing an article for a college magazine is very tricky. And, that is my job.

The idea
A poster campaign is planned that will persuade students to send articles for the magazine. As I always practise, I wanted to stay away from the obvious choices in the design.

Since most of the students are just like me – chasing stardom or fame – I decided to use this thirst for recognition as the central idea for the posters. To connect well with the target audience, I wanted to bring them as the central attraction in the posters. That is how I got the idea of a photographer asking “smile please…” facing the onlooker. It was very easy to scale the idea and I made three more design options.

The design

Fortunately, I happened to get a good set of photographs for the posters. These photos ensured that the posters will get many eyeballs when displayed. The words mouthed by the characters are given as the mast head to retain the attention of the viewer. The tagline “You are famous/popular/a star/a celebrity…if your name appears” in the magazine did the trick.

The body copy and other data are graciously given to me by the concerned people. So there was no need for me to ‘actually’ invent and write something.

The outcome
Instead of selecting one of the designs, the panel selected all of them! This surprised me. All the four posters were printed and displayed prominently in the campus. Will they get enough articles for the magazine? Only time can tell. I am eagerly waiting to know the result.

Acknowledgements
Photo used in ‘Smile Please’
Gözde Otman, Istanbul, Turkey

Photo used in ‘Autograph Please’
Carl Dwyer, BW, Germany

Photo used in ‘Wow!’
i o f o t o, US
Photo used in ‘Well, I think…’
Jason Ralston, Florida, US

Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3
Design date: 15-Oct-2008